I would like to tell about a review activity in a weak 9th grade. The students learned 15 new vocabulary items, including 5 multiword items,before reading an article (movie-review), and the next lesson we did the following activities:
I asked students to volunteer and write on the board three items (from the 15) that they know how to write correctly. That was not a test. They could look in their notebooks / books, and memorize them, and then write them on the board, plus their L1 meanings. (I write Hebrew meanings only in very weak classes). When all the 'words' were written on the board I asked a pupil to read them aloud, plus their meanings. Then, I chose items at random, not according to their order on the board, and said them in English- the students had to tell me their meanings. Then the other way around, I said the Hebrew translations, to which they had to give me the English 'words'. After that recycling of the 'words', which I mentioned 3-4 times each, I erased their Hebrew meanings. Now, only the English words and 'chunks' were on the board.
I asked the students to put down their heads, so that they won't see the words, and then I asked them to say words from the list they remembered. Together they remembered all the words! They had a lot of fun, and at the same time also learned much!
(By the way, I enjoyed the lesson very much too...)
I would like to tell about a review activity in a weak 9th grade. The students learned 15 new vocabulary items, including 5 multiword items,before reading an article (movie-review), and the next lesson we did the following activities:
I asked students to volunteer and write on the board three items (from the 15) that they know how to write correctly. That was not a test. They could look in their notebooks / books, and memorize them, and then write them on the board, plus their L1 meanings. (I write Hebrew meanings only in very weak classes). When all the 'words' were written on the board I asked a pupil to read them aloud, plus their meanings. Then, I chose items at random, not according to their order on the board, and said them in English- the students had to tell me their meanings. Then the other way around, I said the Hebrew translations, to which they had to give me the English 'words'. After that recycling of the 'words', which I mentioned 3-4 times each, I erased their Hebrew meanings. Now, only the English words and 'chunks' were on the board.
I asked the students to put down their heads, so that they won't see the words, and then I asked them to say words from the list they remembered. Together they remembered all the words! They had a lot of fun, and at the same time also learned much!
(By the way, I enjoyed the lesson very much too...)